Improvement in racks for dental tools



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIOE.

GEORGE E. HAYES, OF BUFFALO, NEw YORK, AssIG-NOR To BUFFALO DENTALMANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLAGE.

IMPROVEMENT IN RACKS FOR DENTAL TOOLS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 144,539, dated November11,1873; application filed September 12, 1873.

l' racks which are designed to enable dentists,

while engaged in filling or otherwise operating upon teeth, to exchangeone tool or instrument for another, as they may need to do, withoutremoving the hand that holds the patients,

mouth. To effect this, the improved rack consists in a plate or barconstructed or provided witha series of elastic jaws having recesses inthemfor the reception of the tools or toolpoints, as they are oftencalled. The tool is thrust between the pair of jaws intended to receiveit, and is held therein by the elasticity of the jaws, while its handleis unscrewed from it, and the tool which is to be substituted for it isheld in its pair of jaws, while the handle is screwed on it.

l In the accompanying drawing, Figure lis a perspective view of a cornerportion of a table or bench having two of these racks applied to it, andFig. 2 is a section through one of its pair of jaws.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in bothiigures.

The racks are shown, one applied to the under side of the edge portionof a table or bench, and the other to the upper side. They consist ofmetal plates A A, slitted at regular intervals from the outer edgeinward, far enough to form a series of elastic strips, a a', each two ofwhich constitute pairs of jaws. Near the outer end of these jaws thereare in their inner opposite sides recesses c c, shaped in arcs of acircle. They receive the tools and gripe them so rmly that the handle inwhich they each are used may be screwed on or off by simply turning itround by the hand in which it is used, leaving the other free to holdthe patients head. These racks are fastened in place by means of screwspassing through them and screwing into their support.

To substituteone .tool for another the dentist, without removing thehand that holds the patients head, thrusts the tool that is in thehandle into the pair of jaws in the rack designed to hold it,-and whileit is held thereby he turns the handle round with his fingers and thumb,so as to unscrew it from the tool, then, in the same manner, screws itonto the tool which he desires to use, which, being tapered toward thepoint, is instantly loosened from the v jaws by the rotary motion, whenthe screw is driven home to its place.

One great advantage of this rack is, tl at tool-points are so firmlyheld that any sudde 1 jar does not disarrange or throw them out of placeanother is, that it does not require tools to be made especially for it,as it operates equally "well, whether round or with flattened sides orwith a hole through the body, in all of which ways tool-points are nowmade. And still another advantage is, that the points are brought intoplain view, and may be more readily seen than when lying flat.

What I claim as my invention, is-.-

The rack, composed of a plate or bar, constructed or provided with aseries of elastic jaws formed of the same piece of metal as the plate,and recessed on theirinner sides to receive and hold the tools,essentially as for the purpose herein set forth.

GEORGE E. HAYES.

Witnesses CHARLES ROTHER, WILLIAM GRANs.

